FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

COLUMBIA INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.

COLUMBIA INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB,

Kendall Green, Washington, D. C., September 29, 1899.

The pupils remaining in the institution July 1, 1898, numbered 118; admitted during the year, 36; since admitted, 27; total, 181. Under instruction since July 1, 1898, 114 males, 67 females. Of these, 127 have been in the college department, representing 31 States, the District of Columbia, Canada, and Ireland, and 54 in the primary department. A list of the names of the pupils connected with the institution since July 1, 1898, will be found appended to this report.

HEALTH.

We have satisfaction in referring for the third time to the great value of our isolated hospital rooms which were provided in our new boys' dormitory four years ago.

Two cases of scarlet fever appeared early in the year, and the complete separation of the sick boys and their nurse, which we were able to effect, prevented any spread of the disease. No other serious cases of illness have occurred, and no deaths.

COURSES OF INSTRUCTION.

No detailed statement of the courses of study offered in the several departments of the institution has appeared in our annual reports for several years. It will therefore not be deemed out of place to set forth rather fully what we are able to do for the moral, mental, and physical development of the young people committed to our care.

Moral and religious instruction, the latter of a strictly undenominational character, is provided for by regular daily exercises in both school and college separately, and on the Sabbath such services are held in the chapel with the two departments brought together.

These exercises are conducted by signs, the manual alphabet, or orally, as seems best adapted to the capacity and ability of those to be instructed and as may most clearly and impressively reach the minds and hearts of our pupils.

Instruction in drawing and painting is given to all in the school or college who show talent for artistic work and who desire such teaching. Physical training is given to all the students of the college and to the older pupils of the school in a convenient and well-equipped gymnasium. We have ample playgrounds and fields for athletic sports for all classes of pupils. Football, baseball, track athletics, lawn tennis, basket ball, and croquet are engaged in with great zest by many.

The boys of the Kendall School, when arrived at the proper age, may have instruction in carpentry and cabinet-making, and the girls of this school are taught sewing and the ordinary branches of housework.

Instructions in speech and speech reading is given to all pupils and students who show ability to attain a reasonable degree of success therewith, and a considerable amount of teaching is carried on orally with those pupils whose power of understanding the movement of the lips is sufficient therefor. The manual alphabet is much used in conducting recitations, and the sign language is resorted to mostly for public lectures, or for explanation in the class room, when the resort to words spelled, written, or spoken is unsuccessful.

The range of mental development covered by the prescribed courses of study in our school and college is believed to be greater than can be found in any other educational establishment in the world, for we receive into our school children 7 years of age, who have no basis of verbal language whatever, and carry them forward through a graded course until they are prepared to enter college, and then through a regular course in the higher branches until they have earned the right to be graduated as bachelors of arts or of science.

This continuous course of study, covering a period of from thirteen to fifteen years, is divided into two parts, as follows:

COURSE OF STUDY IN THE KENDALL SCHOOL.

The course of instruction followed in the Kendall School is substantially that pursued by a majority of the institutions for the deaf in this country. Its general aim may be thus stated: To give the pupil a practical understanding and command of the English language, a knowledge of the principles of arithmetic sufficiently extensive to meet his needs in business transactions, a full course in political geography, and a reasonable course in history.

A list of the text-books used is given below; but it should be remarked that the catalogue includes only those that have been lately in use. The choice of text-books is not limited, and undue importance is not attached to their employment during the first two or three years of the course.

The teacher, while observing certain general rules of instruction, is encouraged in minor details to consult his own judgment and methods and the individuality of the pupil. Original work on his part is welcomed. Manuscript lessons or language exercises, written with particular reference to the requirements of the class, form a part of the schoolroom work.

During the first two years of the course the pupil is taught writing and the meaning and construction of simple sentences, and practiced in numeration, and in simple addition and subtraction. Toys, pictures, and other illustrative objects are employed. No. 1 of Miss Sweet's First Lessons in English and Miss Fuller's Illustrated Primer are used in connection with manuscript lessons by the teacher.

During the next two years the class is carried forward in the construction of sentences, multiplication and division are taught, and more or less instruction in geography is given. Nos. 2, 3, and 4 of Miss Sweet's Lessons, and Jenkins's Talks and Stories, Appleton's Easy Lessons in Geography, or some similarly simple text-book in geography, and Nos. 1 and 2 of Prince's Arithmetic by Grades, or some primary arithmetic are used in the schoolroom.

During the fifth and sixth years the class is drilled in composition daily; it is advanced in arithmetic to common fractions and compound numbers, and even further if possible. The history of the United States and political and descriptive geography are taught. The text-books used are Montgomery's Beginners' American History, Nos. 3 and 4 of Prince's Arithmetic by Grades, and Appleton's Easy Lessons in Geography, or Warren's New Primary Geography. This course sometimes extends in individual cases into the seventh or even into the eighth year.

Daily instruction in articulation and lip reading is given to every pupil that shows capacity for vocal improvement. In all cases, save the exceptional ones where the results do not warrant the time and labor bestowed, the instruction is continued through the whole period of the pupil's connection with the Kendall School. The hearing tube, single and duplex, the audiphone, Bell's visible speech charts, and all other appliances that can be utilized in the work are employed.

The high class.-A feature of the Kendall School is the high class, whose members pursue a course of study preparatory to admission to the introductory class of the college. The text-books used are Barnes's Primary History of the United States or Higginson's Young Folks' History of the United States, Gardiner's School History of England or Higginson and Channing's English History for American Readers (to the reign of Henry VII), physical geography as taught in Mitchell's Intermediate Geography, Houston's Intermediate Lessons in Natural Philosophy, either Wentworth's Common School Arithmetic or the Franklin Arithmetic or Greenleaf's Complete Arithmetic, and Nos. 5 and 6 of Prince's Arithmetic by Grades.

COURSE OF STUDY IN GALLAUDET COLLEGE.

The time assigned for completing this course is five years, an introductory year preceding the four usual years of college study.

OUTLINE OF THE CURRICULUM.

INTRODUCTORY COURSE,

Language.-A review of English grammar, elementary and advanced, extends through two terms. Longman's School Grammar and Welsh's English Composition are the text-books used; the latter includes a course in punctuation and also in theme writing.

Latin is studied throughout the year. The text book is Collar and Daniell's First Latin Book. In the last term a portion of the second book of Cæsar's Gallic War is read.

Mathematics.-Wentworth's Algebra is the text-book, which is studied throughout the year through pure quadratic equations. Algebra is then discontinued until the last term of the freshman year. Much attention is given to the solution of problems, many of which are taken from various other text-books. In comprehending these many deafmutes labor under peculiar difficulties, not from lack of reasoning power, but from insufficient or defective training in English during their previous instruction.

History.-Higginson and Channing's English History for American Readers, beginning with the reign of Henry VII, is taken up and concluded during one term.

INT 99-MIS, PT 1—26

UNDERGRADUATE COURSE OF STUDY FOR THE DEGREE OF
BACHELOR OF ARTS.

The college makes provision for thorough instruction in the essentials of a liberal education, without attempting to do the special work of the polytechnic schools on the one hand or that of the university on the other. The course of higher instruction leading to collegiate degrees occupies four years, and embraces courses in (1) languages, ancient and modern, (2) mathematics, (3) natural science, (4) history, and (5) philosophy and political science. The arrangement of the studies by years is given in the synopsis which follows this descriptive outline.

I. LANGUAGE.

MODERN LANGUAGES.

History of the English language.-Text-books: Johnson's English Words and Hadley's Brief History; third term of the sophomore year. The students bring in on paper an epitome of the topics in the lesson, and give further a detailed statement, paragraph by paragraph, followed by answers to questions, and supplemented by brief lectures on the part of the instructor.

History and criticism of English literature.-The text-books are Collier's History of English Literature and Maertz's New Method. The time given is the second term of the sophomore year and the third term of the senior year. With recitations from the historical compend, questions from Maertz's Method, requiring original research, are given and required to be answered in writing. An entire work of some author is occasionally selected for perusal and critical analysis, the result to be given in writing. Now and then an essay is required, giving an estimate of some author as derived from sources outside of the text-book.

English composition.-Hill's Principles of Rhetoric is studied in the third term of the sophomore year and daily written exercises are exacted. Frequent exercises in original composition are required of students in all the classes throughout the five years' course. In the revision of these exercises all the faculty take part, each member having a section. The revision is usually done in the presence of the writer and by the writer when possible.

French and German.-Both French and German are required in the course, French being studied in the junior and German in the senior year, with daily recitations during the three terms. With both these languages the attempt is made to give a thorough comprehension of their grammatical forms and principles, the peculiarities of their idioms, and their relations to English, and especially to render the students skillful, accurate, and ready in translation. In French Van Daell's Grammar and Reader are used, with supplementary reading of French texts varied from year to year. The corresponding course in German consists of Whitney's Grammar and Super's Reader, with supplementary reading of German texts. The students are also encouraged to pursue independent courses of reading.

ANCIENT LANGUAGES.

Latin.-There are daily recitations in Latin throughout the freshman year and the first term of the sophomore year. In the freshman year, part of Cæsar's Gallic War and several of Cicero's Orations are read;

in the sophomore year a part of Virgil's Eneid. Special attention is paid to the construction and analysis of the language, to extemporaneous Latin composition based upon the text under consideration, and to Latin etymology in its bearings upon our own tongue. While the authors read are for the most part such as the faculty would prefer, if practicable, to confine to the introductory course, and while-owing to the prominence given to French and German, and especially to the composition and critical study of English-the time devoted to the ancient languages is less than in the usual curriculum of American colleges, it is believed that Latin is taught in such a manner as to awaken in the students the true spirit of classical scholarship, and enable them subsequently to read more difficult authors, independently, with pleasure and profit.

Greek. The study of Greek is optional; the course marked out by the faculty, comprising White's Beginner's Book, Goodwin's Grammar, and Xenophon's Anabasis in the freshman year, Homer's Iliad in the sophomore year, and Demosthenes on the Crown in the junior year, has been successfully pursued to a greater or less extent by several students.

II. MATHEMATICS.

Geometry. The freshmen study geometry throughout the year, using Gore's Geometry, or some equivalent work, as the text-book. The class-room work is chiefly written upon wall slates, and the students elucidate their demonstrations before the whole class. Numerous theorems not demonstrated and problems not solved in the text-book are given to test the ability and proficiency of the class.

Algebra, having been studied throughout the introductory year, is resumed in the freshman year, and the subject is completed.

Trigonometry, with its applications, is studied throughout the sophomore year. The text-book is Wentworth's Plane and Spherical Trigonometry, with its applications to mensuration, surveying, and navigation. Analytical geometry and differential calculus are optional studies.

Mechanics.-In the first term of the junior year the elementary propositions of mechanics are mathematically demonstrated and illustrated by numerous practical problems. The text-book is Dana's Mechanics. In all the studies of the mathematical course much original work of an elementary and practical character is required, and it is believed that students who have mastered this course are prepared to undertake the study of the higher branches of mathematics.

III.-NATURAL SCIENCE.

Chemistry. The sophomores use Remsen's Elementary Text-book to gain knowledge of the principles of general chemistry. Each student is expected to perform as many of the experiments laid down in the text-book as practicable, and is required to make notes on all his laboratory work. The juniors engage in laboratory work for one term, making use of standard works for guidance in qualitative analysis. The aim of the entire course in chemistry and analysis is to train students to habits of accuracy in observation and reasoning, and to lay a foundation for more advanced scientific work.

Physics. The juniors study hydrostatics, pneumatics, magnetism, electricity, heat, and light for one term, as set forth in Gage's Elements of Physics.